Leigh Bardugo – Ruin & Rising

Grisha Trilogy, book 3

“Maybe love was superstition, a prayer we said to keep the truth of loneliness at bay.”

SPOILER ALERT!

After the seemingly desperate ending of Siege and Storm readers who caught on early were left on tenterhooks for quite a time waiting for Ruin and Rising, eager to see just how ruined the Sun Summoner is after her battle with the Darkling. The Apparat has saved her but will Santka Alina ever be able to live up to her name, and is she about to become a martyr for someone else’s cause, a puppet in someone else’s game?

The fast and furious nature of the first two books continues into Ruin and Rising as Alina, Mal and the other surviving army attempt to piece together what happened at the Little Palace, what has changed and what lurks in the curling shadows.

The Darkling has Ravka under his shadow now, leaving Alina burdened with an formidable task ahead. Nikolai is nowhere to be found, it’s unknown if he’s even alive, and with the Game of Thrones style massacre in Siege and Storm, you start to wonder again if anyone will get out alive! This book has so many twists and turns you’re constantly surprised, but one thing is for sure, expect to fear the great terribleness from Leigh Bardugo as she brings down more major characters in all manner of hideous ways as the remnants of the Grisha Army seek the Firebird.

I felt Ruin and Rising could have gone further into the back-story of The Darkling, and Mal and Alina too, it would be great to have felt an even greater connection with many of the characters. That’s not a complaint of the writing, in fact isn’t the sign of a good book when it never seems quite long enough.

When the end comes it’s as terrible and wonderful as every page of the three books have been. I won’t spoil the ending, but whether you’re ‘Team Darkling’ ‘Team Alina’ or ‘Team Mal’ may affect how you feel about the finale.

Overall this has been a fantastic trilogy, highly recommended and very enjoyable to read with more twists and turns than a gnarly old tree in the permafrost.